Becoming Minimalist Top Posts of 2015

Written byjoshua becker ·

A special thanks to each of you for making 2015 an incredible year at Becoming Minimalist. This website continues to grow each month beyond my wildest expectations—in fact, this year represents the 7th consecutive year of consistent growth. As before, this growth has occurred entirely from the support of readers like you—there is no advertising involved.

Thank you for sharing this website. But even more, thank you for sharing the life-giving message of owning less.

Here are some numeric representations of our growth:

Monthly visitors to Becoming Minimalist have increased to over 1,000,000 visitors/month.

And, on January 1, we will be launching a 12-week course called Uncluttered to help you own less, live more, and find the life you’ve always wanted. To receive updates concerning cost and registration, visit this page.

It has indeed been an incredibly exciting year. The metrics above prove the point. But going beyond the numbers, 2015 marked my second full year of writing and speaking full-time on the topic of minimalism. This message is important and the opportunity is great. I am grateful to be a small part of it.

In case you missed any, here are some of the top posts on Becoming Minimalist from 2015.

How to Slow Down Your Family’s Schedule.Wise parents take their role seriously. They seek to develop talents, skills, and self-sufficiency in their children. However, they realize this does not occur best within the confines of a cluttered schedule. Busy is not the same as productive.

Owning Less is Great. Wanting Less is Better. Because I don’t want to own more than I already have, I am freed from the constant comparing of my stuff to others. I am no longer bound to the incessant pursuit of more money and more stuff. I have found contentment in the things that I own. I have discovered more room for generosity. And I have begun to bend my pursuits towards things that matter.

The Purpose of Living Simple | No Sidebar by Melissa Camara Wilkins. Making a difference in your life and your world sometimes means that you have to make a different choice than the people around you. But making your own best choices now means you benefit in the days to come.

Whether you have been reading Becoming Minimalist for one week, one month, one year or longer, thank you so much. This blog owes its success to the support of its readers. Thank you for reading. And thank you for sharing these posts with others.

We look forward to an exciting 2016. Last year represented one of my most ambitious year ever—and now, I look forward to seeing each of those dreams become reality.

Uncluttered will be launched January 1 and The More of Less will be released in May. Both, I believe, hold significant opportunity to help you (and others) own less stuff and live more life.

No doubt, in the coming year, Becoming Minimalist will continue to evolve and be redefined. But it will always stay true to its core message that there is more joy to be found in owning less than can be found in pursuing more.

We will continue to invite as many as possible to discover this truth in their lives. And I hope you will join us.

About Joshua Becker

Writer. Inspiring others to live more by owning less.WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.

My personal favourite is the post about wealth – the wealth that we all have and can tap into when we look for happiness in the right places.
Thank you for a great year of posts! Here’s to a wonderful, full 2016!

The post about wearing the same thing every day made me want to do the same thing – my only problem is actually finding an outfit I’d be okay with wearing every day. Seems like it needs to be extra special in some way if I wanna do that. Like a trademark look or something.

In 4-H we learned about the complete costume. If you have a basic skirt, slacks, jacket, then you can get two or three blouses/sweater/vest that will work with them in different combinations. A scarf and jewelry can change the look too, and also the shoes/boots you use. Dress it up or down. It is interesting that we don’t think much about seeing jeans everyday, but tops yes. I would wonder if they are being laundered very often. Kind of depends on your job too.

My minimalism may be considered someone else’s hoarding. Minimalism is not depriving yourself, its enjoying what you love and letting go of the rest.
The latte mix we bought at the local kwik trip gas station is hardly a status symbol. To me, the latte represents having the time to make a good coffee treat and relax by reading a piece of inspiration on weekend. During week, it is me running out door with my thermos of plain coffee.

I always look forward to your posts. Not fussed on having loads of stuff, but there are drawers to sort.
Although more of a tea drinker. The coffee seems to me to represent someone who is going to sit for a while & write posts like yours. Please keep up the good work. It’s wonderful to learn you have so many readers. I used to think I was odd not liking shopping etc!
All the very best in the coming year.
Angela UK

Love seeing the new or even old posts as I just joined within a year. It keeps my motivation up.
I am also on another site that deals with actually moving out the clutter.
It is the double whammy I need.

I discovered this website months ago and still enjoying it! There is some solid advises to start with. I’m in minimalism for 2 years now and haven’t achived what I was looking for. I downsized the house by moving closer to work, sell a car, sell a motorcycle and let go a lot of useless stuff. My vision is pretty clear, trying to pursue my goal of pure simplicity.

I found this site a few years ago and loved the concept and tried very hard to incorporate it into my life. I started strong, Gave away over $5,000 worth of clothes to a local charity and felt FANTASTIC about it. I continued to empty my house, room by room and made great progress.

I then ran into strong headwinds, my family. I have two teenage girls and a wife who considers shopping as one of life’s great pleasures. They wanted no part of my lifestyle change, but my wife did enjoy me cleaning the house room by room…

She didn’t fight me on it, but wasn’t going to participate either. My enthusiasm began to wane and before long things began to return to the unsatisfying attempt to buy happiness one amazon package at a time.

With the new year right around the corner, I am again going to jump back into the fray and try again to free myself from the materialistic world I am drowning in.

This website, Joshua’s books and the many other resources available will hopefully let me succeed this time.

So let it begin again tomorrow, and I will start again with my closet and work my way through the house and office..

Happy New Year to you Joshua. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into your site and the message behind it. Ignore the trolls that have come out of the woodwork. The community of readers here at Becoming Minimalist appreciates what you do. Best.

P.S. I just finished Simplify and have handed it off (digitally) to my wife. It’s actually a really good companion to Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which I received as a present for Christmas from my wife — who has heard me talk about this “minimalism” thing ad nauseam for the past year.

I especially like that you speak of rational minimalism because like you, I, too, live in the suburbs and have a wife, two kids, and a mortgage (and a dog) :)

Joshua, congrats on an incredible year! Minimalism not only enhances quality of life, it is also one of the best things that could happen to help the state of the environment. So glad it’s catching on.

I have read all of these posts, some more than once. The beauty of your words are that the inspiration stays in your mind long, long after reading them. Thank you for taking us on your journey and continuing to share such great stories.